Independent Democrat Union
Encyclopedia
The Independent Democrat Union (Unión Democrata Independiente, UDI) is a Chile
an right-wing, conservative
political party
, founded in 1983. Its main inspirer was the lawyer, politician and law professor Jaime Guzmán
, a former senator of the Republic of Chile from 1990 until his assassination on April 1, 1991.
Its ideological origins date back to the Gremialismo movement, born in the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile
in 1966, mainly featured by promoting the independence and depoliticization of intermediate bodies of civil society.
UDI, together with National Renewal
(RN) and other minor movements, form a coalition of center-right parties called Coalicion por el Cambio (Coalition for Change), which is the successor to "Alianza por Chile" (Alliance for Chile) and which rose to power in March 2010, after the victory in the presidential elections held in January 2010. It is currently the largest political party in Congress
.
In the Chilean parliamentary election, 2009
, UDI was the first majority in the election of deputies, making 40 deputies (one third of the House) with a 23.04% (1,507,001 votes), and got a 21.21% (369,594 votes) in the election of senators. Its bench is the largest obtained by a single party in Chile since 1990. UDI currently has 39 deputies and 8 senators.
In the Chilean municipal election, 2008
, UDI got 347 councilmen (16.16% of councilmen) by a vote of 15.11%, and obtained 58 mayors (16.81% of mayors) by a vote of 20.05%. That year, it was the largest party by elected councilmen and the most voted party in the election of councilmen. Also, UDI is the second largest party by number of mayors in Chile (only one mayor less than Partido Demócrata Cristiano de Chile).
, President of the Law Students Union at the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile
-who was against the protests and strikes, led by christian-democrats and left-wing students- gathered a group of students and founded the Movimiento Gremial (roughly "Guild Movement")and ran for the University's Student Union (Federación de Estudiantes) election. The movement quickly became one of the most important in the Catholic University, and won later the presidency of the University's Student Union.
Jaime Guzmán criticized liberal democracy as the only means of representation, raising the need to strengthen the principle of subsidiarity
and to invigorate intermediate social movements, by the way that these were independent to develop their own specific purposes. Well into the government of Salvador Allende
, some young members of the National Party and the Christian Democrats became part of the Guild Movement.
Guzmán supported a military coup against Allende's government, which happened shortly thereafter on September 11, 1973 (see: Chilean coup of 1973
). He was a close advisor of General Augusto Pinochet
. Guzmán was later appointed a member of the Commission for the Study of the New Constitution, who worded the new constitution promulgated in 1980.
After the 1982 economic crisis, which caused the temporary removal of the "Chicago Boys" from cabinet, Guzmán moved away from the government and decided to found the movement he wanted, establishing it on September 24, 1983 under the name Independent Democratic Union Movement (Movimiento Unión Demócrata Independiente).
The emerging movement, a supporter of the military government, had (as opposed to the traditional right-wing political groups) a strong emphasis on the lower classes, in order to snatch the Marxist left its traditional domain of these. Amid the growing economic crisis of that time, UDI engaged in empowering leaders in countryside and peripheral neighbourhoods that will help extend its influence in the middle and low classes. One of them was Simon Yévenes, UDI member assassinated by left-wing terrorists April 2, 1986.
On April 29, 1987, the Independent Democratic Union merged with other related movements such as National Union Movement, led by Andres Allamand, and National Labour Front, led by Sergio Onofre Jarpa, plus some former members and supporters of the National Party and the Christian Democrats, to form the National Renewal party (RN), who managed briefly to unite all the right movements in the country. However, UDI members maintained its own identity in the new party, which caused a crisis in 1988, culminating in the resignation of all former UDI members to National Renewal. Allamand stayed in charge of National Renewal, while Jaime Guzman managed to register a new political party: Independent Democratic Union in 1989.
UDI supported strongly the "Yes" in Chilean national plebiscite, 1988
. After the "Yes" option was defeated and presidential elections were announced, the UDI joined National Renewal
and formed the "Democracy and Progress" alliance (Democracia y Progreso). Hernan Büchi
, the former Minister of Finances under Pinochet, ran for president for this alliance. The alliance also ran a common Parliament list. The UDI's option lost the 1989 presidential election
, this time against the center-left Concertación
's leader, the Christian Democrat Patricio Aylwin
.
for Western Santiago
constituency. Although Guzman took third place with only 17% of the vote, behind Christian Democrat Andrés Zaldívar
and Party for Democracy
leader Ricardo Lagos
, the two main leaders of the Coalition of Parties for Democracy, the binomial system allowed Zaldívar's and his election and deferred Ricardo Lagos who got 30%.
By 1990, Guzman was positioned as the leader of the opposition and was one of the harshest critics of the new democratic government, accusing it of softness in the fight against terrorist and subversive organizations which kept operating in Chile even after the restoration of democracy. On April 1, 1991, Guzman was shot by members of the armed left-wing group Manuel Rodriguez Patriotic Front
(Frente Patriótico Manuel Rodríguez), after leaving his lecture of Constitutional Law at the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile. He was replaced as senator by the National Renewal candidate for the same constituency, Miguel Otero.
The Independent Democrat Union remained as a minor party in the early years of transition, compared with its ally National Renewal, but over the years managed to win preferences, match and surpass them. In subsequent elections, UDI began to grow noticeably: got 12.11% in a congressional election in 1993, a 14.45% in elections in 1997 and 25.19% in the 2001 elections, when it became the largest party in Chile, removing that title to the Christian Democrats.
In 1998, when Pinochet was arrested in London, the UDI and National Renewal pressed the Frei government to return him to Chile.
In 1999, Joaquín Lavín
, the mayor of Las Condes
and member of UDI, was proclaimed as the Alliance for Chile candidate for the presidential election. Even as a relatively new face, a moderate support for Augusto Pinochet and a proposal eminently pragmatic rather than dogmatic, took him to get the 47.51% of the votes against the Concertación candidate Ricardo Lagos on the first ballot, with a difference of about 30,000 votes (ie, almost one vote per polling place). Finally, in January 2000, Lavin got a 48.69% of the votes against 51.31% of Lagos in the second round, which was the most votes obtained by a right-wing presidential candidate Chile in the twentieth century.
.
A milestone in the party's image came in 2003 when Longueira reported in a TV interview that he met with relatives of Disappeared Detainees, who saw the party as a serious and reliable institution, through which they could get some of the solutions that Socialist governments had not granted them. Of these numerous meetings, arose the document "Peace Now" ("La Paz Ahora"), which sought to give a sign of national reconciliation.
Also in 2003, stressed the frictions and conflicts between RN and UDI, mainly due to a dispute between the parties for the leadership within the Alliance for Chile, as well as personal disagreements between the presidents of both parties, Pablo Longueira and Sebastián Piñera
. That is Joaquin Lavin, who was then leader of the Alliance for Chile and only presidential candidate, had suddenly and publicly call on both the resignation from their posts.
In 2005, UDI selected Joaquín Lavín for presidential elections again, but National Renewal launched its own candidate, the millionaire businessman and former senator Sebastián Piñera
. Attempts to choose a single candidate for the right-wing failed. Piñera got second in the election, and there was a runoff between him and the Concertación candidate, Michelle Bachelet
. Lavín urged his supporters to vote for Piñera, whom he endorsed wholeheartedly. However, in the 2006 runoff, Piñera was defeated by Bachelet. In the 2005 parliamentary elections
, UDI maintained its status as largest party in Congress, taking 33 out of 120 deputies.
During the government of Michelle Bachelet (2006-2010), UDI was the majority party in both houses of Congress and successfully fought the municipal election of 2008. At the internal level, in July 2008 was first presented two lists to lead the party: one headed by Juan Antonio Coloma and Victor Perez Varela (who had the backing of the historical leaders of the party) and one by Jose Antonio Kast and Rodrigo Alvarez (supported mainly by the younger members). Coloma got 63% of member votes.
Coloma's board immediately got down to the details of the upcoming Chilean municipal election, 2008
, and just finished it, the preparations for next year's parliamentary and presidential election. In December 2008, the highest party leaders decided to forgo the option to offer the country a UDI presidential candidate and provided support for Piñera's candidacy in order to avoid a fifth consecutive Concertacion government. This decision was ratified later, unanimously by party members, August 22, 2009.
, the candidate of the Coalition for Change
, was elected President of the Republic of Chile
on January 17, 2010, in runoff against Senator Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle
. UDI and its territorial deployment was key to the Piñera's success. Meanwhile, in Chilean parliamentary elections, 2009, UDI managed to remain the largest party in the country and elected 40 deputies out of 120, representing the largest bank obtained by a single political party in Chile since 1990.
In August 2010 they met for the second time the lists of Juan Antonio Coloma and Jose Antonio Kast to lead the party, again with a triumph for Coloma with more than 67% of the votes.
Many members of UDI are part of Piñera's administration.
Chile
Chile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...
an right-wing, conservative
Conservatism
Conservatism is a political and social philosophy that promotes the maintenance of traditional institutions and supports, at the most, minimal and gradual change in society. Some conservatives seek to preserve things as they are, emphasizing stability and continuity, while others oppose modernism...
political party
Political party
A political party is a political organization that typically seeks to influence government policy, usually by nominating their own candidates and trying to seat them in political office. Parties participate in electoral campaigns, educational outreach or protest actions...
, founded in 1983. Its main inspirer was the lawyer, politician and law professor Jaime Guzmán
Jaime Guzmán
Jaime Jorge Guzmán Errázuriz was a Chilean lawyer and senator, member and doctrinal founder of the conservative Independent Democrat Union party. He opposed Marxist President Salvador Allende and later became a close advisor to dictator Augusto Pinochet. A professor of Constitutional Law, he...
, a former senator of the Republic of Chile from 1990 until his assassination on April 1, 1991.
Its ideological origins date back to the Gremialismo movement, born in the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile
Pontifical Catholic University of Chile
The Pontifical Catholic University of Chile is one of the six Catholic Universities existing in the Chilean university system and one of the two Pontifical Universities in the country, along with the Pontifical Catholic University of Valparaíso. It is also one of Chile's oldest universities and...
in 1966, mainly featured by promoting the independence and depoliticization of intermediate bodies of civil society.
UDI, together with National Renewal
National Renewal (Chile)
National Renewal , is a liberal conservative political party belonging to the Chilean right-wing political coalition Coalition for Change in conjunction with the Independent Democratic Union and the Chile First movement...
(RN) and other minor movements, form a coalition of center-right parties called Coalicion por el Cambio (Coalition for Change), which is the successor to "Alianza por Chile" (Alliance for Chile) and which rose to power in March 2010, after the victory in the presidential elections held in January 2010. It is currently the largest political party in Congress
National Congress of Chile
The National Congress is the legislative branch of the government of the Republic of Chile.The National Congress of Chile was founded on July 4, 1811...
.
In the Chilean parliamentary election, 2009
Chilean parliamentary election, 2009
Parliamentary elections were held in Chile on December 13, 2009, in conjunction with the presidential election. The totality of seats in the Chamber of Deputies and 18 out of 38 seats in the Senate were up for election....
, UDI was the first majority in the election of deputies, making 40 deputies (one third of the House) with a 23.04% (1,507,001 votes), and got a 21.21% (369,594 votes) in the election of senators. Its bench is the largest obtained by a single party in Chile since 1990. UDI currently has 39 deputies and 8 senators.
In the Chilean municipal election, 2008
Chilean municipal election, 2008
A municipal election took place in Chile on October 26, 2008. The newly elected mayors and councilmen began their term on December 6, 2008.-Mayoral election:Official and final results.-Councilmen election:Official and final results....
, UDI got 347 councilmen (16.16% of councilmen) by a vote of 15.11%, and obtained 58 mayors (16.81% of mayors) by a vote of 20.05%. That year, it was the largest party by elected councilmen and the most voted party in the election of councilmen. Also, UDI is the second largest party by number of mayors in Chile (only one mayor less than Partido Demócrata Cristiano de Chile).
History
It was during the university strikes of 1960's when Jaime GuzmánJaime Guzmán
Jaime Jorge Guzmán Errázuriz was a Chilean lawyer and senator, member and doctrinal founder of the conservative Independent Democrat Union party. He opposed Marxist President Salvador Allende and later became a close advisor to dictator Augusto Pinochet. A professor of Constitutional Law, he...
, President of the Law Students Union at the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile
Pontifical Catholic University of Chile
The Pontifical Catholic University of Chile is one of the six Catholic Universities existing in the Chilean university system and one of the two Pontifical Universities in the country, along with the Pontifical Catholic University of Valparaíso. It is also one of Chile's oldest universities and...
-who was against the protests and strikes, led by christian-democrats and left-wing students- gathered a group of students and founded the Movimiento Gremial (roughly "Guild Movement")and ran for the University's Student Union (Federación de Estudiantes) election. The movement quickly became one of the most important in the Catholic University, and won later the presidency of the University's Student Union.
Jaime Guzmán criticized liberal democracy as the only means of representation, raising the need to strengthen the principle of subsidiarity
Subsidiarity (Catholicism)
Subsidiarity is an organizing principle that matters ought to be handled by the smallest, lowest or least centralized competent authority. Political decisions should be taken at a local level if possible, rather than by a central authority...
and to invigorate intermediate social movements, by the way that these were independent to develop their own specific purposes. Well into the government of Salvador Allende
Salvador Allende
Salvador Allende Gossens was a Chilean physician and politician who is generally considered the first democratically elected Marxist to become president of a country in Latin America....
, some young members of the National Party and the Christian Democrats became part of the Guild Movement.
Guzmán supported a military coup against Allende's government, which happened shortly thereafter on September 11, 1973 (see: Chilean coup of 1973
Chilean coup of 1973
The 1973 Chilean coup d'état was a watershed event of the Cold War and the history of Chile. Following an extended period of political unrest between the conservative-dominated Congress of Chile and the socialist-leaning President Salvador Allende, discontent culminated in the latter's downfall in...
). He was a close advisor of General Augusto Pinochet
Augusto Pinochet
Augusto José Ramón Pinochet Ugarte, more commonly known as Augusto Pinochet , was a Chilean army general and dictator who assumed power in a coup d'état on 11 September 1973...
. Guzmán was later appointed a member of the Commission for the Study of the New Constitution, who worded the new constitution promulgated in 1980.
After the 1982 economic crisis, which caused the temporary removal of the "Chicago Boys" from cabinet, Guzmán moved away from the government and decided to found the movement he wanted, establishing it on September 24, 1983 under the name Independent Democratic Union Movement (Movimiento Unión Demócrata Independiente).
The emerging movement, a supporter of the military government, had (as opposed to the traditional right-wing political groups) a strong emphasis on the lower classes, in order to snatch the Marxist left its traditional domain of these. Amid the growing economic crisis of that time, UDI engaged in empowering leaders in countryside and peripheral neighbourhoods that will help extend its influence in the middle and low classes. One of them was Simon Yévenes, UDI member assassinated by left-wing terrorists April 2, 1986.
On April 29, 1987, the Independent Democratic Union merged with other related movements such as National Union Movement, led by Andres Allamand, and National Labour Front, led by Sergio Onofre Jarpa, plus some former members and supporters of the National Party and the Christian Democrats, to form the National Renewal party (RN), who managed briefly to unite all the right movements in the country. However, UDI members maintained its own identity in the new party, which caused a crisis in 1988, culminating in the resignation of all former UDI members to National Renewal. Allamand stayed in charge of National Renewal, while Jaime Guzman managed to register a new political party: Independent Democratic Union in 1989.
UDI supported strongly the "Yes" in Chilean national plebiscite, 1988
Chilean national plebiscite, 1988
The 1988 Chilean national plebiscite was a national referendum held to determine whether or not dictator Augusto Pinochet would extend his rule for another eight-year term in office. It was held on October 5, 1988...
. After the "Yes" option was defeated and presidential elections were announced, the UDI joined National Renewal
National Renewal (Chile)
National Renewal , is a liberal conservative political party belonging to the Chilean right-wing political coalition Coalition for Change in conjunction with the Independent Democratic Union and the Chile First movement...
and formed the "Democracy and Progress" alliance (Democracia y Progreso). Hernan Büchi
Hernán Büchi
Hernán Büchi Buc is a Chilean economist and politician. He served as Minister of the Treasury under the government of Augusto Pinochet between 1985 and 1989.After the recession of the early 1980s, Büchi's appointment as Finance Minister in 1985:...
, the former Minister of Finances under Pinochet, ran for president for this alliance. The alliance also ran a common Parliament list. The UDI's option lost the 1989 presidential election
Chilean presidential election, 1989
A presidential election was held in Chile on 14 December 1989. This was one of the key events in the conclusion of the military dictatorship.-Results:Source: . -See also:*Chilean coup of 1973*Salvador Allende - deposed by 1973 coup...
, this time against the center-left Concertación
Coalition of Parties for Democracy
The Concert of Parties for Democracy , more often known as the Concertación, is a coalition of center-left political parties in Chile, founded in 1988...
's leader, the Christian Democrat Patricio Aylwin
Patricio Aylwin
Patricio Aylwin Azócar was the first president of Chile after its return to democratic rule in 1990, following the military dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet.- Early life :...
.
1990s
In the 1989 parliamentary elections, the Independent Democratic Union obtained a 9.82% of votes in deputies (14 deputies out of 120) and 5.11% in the Senate (2 senators elected on 38). Jaime Guzmán won a seat as SenatorSenate of Chile
The Senate of the Republic of Chile is the upper house of Chile's bicameral National Congress, as established in the current Constitution of Chile.-Composition:...
for Western Santiago
Santiago, Chile
Santiago , also known as Santiago de Chile, is the capital and largest city of Chile, and the center of its largest conurbation . It is located in the country's central valley, at an elevation of above mean sea level...
constituency. Although Guzman took third place with only 17% of the vote, behind Christian Democrat Andrés Zaldívar
Andrés Zaldívar
José Andrés Rafael Zaldívar Larraín, popularly known as El Chico Zaldívar , is a prominent Chilean Christian Democrat politician. Andrés Zaldívar is of Basque descent.-Early years:...
and Party for Democracy
Party for Democracy
The Party for Democracy is a political party in Chile; it is social democratic in its political orientation. It was founded in December 1987 by Ricardo Lagos, who aimed at forming a legal social democratic party . The party continued to function after the defeat of Pinochet...
leader Ricardo Lagos
Ricardo Lagos
Ricardo Froilán Lagos Escobar is a lawyer, economist and social democrat politician, who served as president of Chile from 2000 to 2006. He won the 1999-2000 presidential election by a narrow margin in a runoff over Independent Democrat Union candidate Joaquín Lavín...
, the two main leaders of the Coalition of Parties for Democracy, the binomial system allowed Zaldívar's and his election and deferred Ricardo Lagos who got 30%.
By 1990, Guzman was positioned as the leader of the opposition and was one of the harshest critics of the new democratic government, accusing it of softness in the fight against terrorist and subversive organizations which kept operating in Chile even after the restoration of democracy. On April 1, 1991, Guzman was shot by members of the armed left-wing group Manuel Rodriguez Patriotic Front
Manuel Rodríguez Patriotic Front
The Manuel Rodríguez Patriotic Front , also known as El Frente Patriótico, or simply El Frente, is a left-wing urban guerrilla movement in Chile, named for a figure in Chile's independence movement, Manuel Rodríguez. The group was founded on September 14, 1983 as an armed resistance against the...
(Frente Patriótico Manuel Rodríguez), after leaving his lecture of Constitutional Law at the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile. He was replaced as senator by the National Renewal candidate for the same constituency, Miguel Otero.
The Independent Democrat Union remained as a minor party in the early years of transition, compared with its ally National Renewal, but over the years managed to win preferences, match and surpass them. In subsequent elections, UDI began to grow noticeably: got 12.11% in a congressional election in 1993, a 14.45% in elections in 1997 and 25.19% in the 2001 elections, when it became the largest party in Chile, removing that title to the Christian Democrats.
In 1998, when Pinochet was arrested in London, the UDI and National Renewal pressed the Frei government to return him to Chile.
In 1999, Joaquín Lavín
Joaquín Lavín
Joaquín José Lavín Infante is a Chilean politician and economist. He is a member of the Independent Democrat Union party and former mayor of Santiago and Las Condes municipalities of capital Santiago...
, the mayor of Las Condes
Las Condes
Las Condes is a commune of Chile located in Santiago Province, Santiago Metropolitan Region. The area is inhabited primarily by upper-mid to high income families...
and member of UDI, was proclaimed as the Alliance for Chile candidate for the presidential election. Even as a relatively new face, a moderate support for Augusto Pinochet and a proposal eminently pragmatic rather than dogmatic, took him to get the 47.51% of the votes against the Concertación candidate Ricardo Lagos on the first ballot, with a difference of about 30,000 votes (ie, almost one vote per polling place). Finally, in January 2000, Lavin got a 48.69% of the votes against 51.31% of Lagos in the second round, which was the most votes obtained by a right-wing presidential candidate Chile in the twentieth century.
2000s
During the first half of the presidential term of Ricardo Lagos (2000-2006), UDI established itself as a relevant political actor of the opposition. Proof of this are the results of UDI in the 2000 municipal elections, the parliamentary elections of 2001, and the Lagos-Longueira agreement of January 17, 2003 to modernize the State administration and give a consensual political solution to 2006%E2%80%932007 Chilean corruption scandals that affected the institutional stability of the Lagos administration. The result of this is the election finance law, high public management law and others. During this period, especially outstanding figure is the party president, Pablo LongueiraPablo Longueira
Juan Pablo Longueira Montes in a Chilean right-wing politician, industrial civil engineer and Independent Democrat Union senator . He was previously a deputy . He launched his candidacy for president of Chile on March 30, 2007, but canceled it on May 3, 2007.-External links:* *...
.
A milestone in the party's image came in 2003 when Longueira reported in a TV interview that he met with relatives of Disappeared Detainees, who saw the party as a serious and reliable institution, through which they could get some of the solutions that Socialist governments had not granted them. Of these numerous meetings, arose the document "Peace Now" ("La Paz Ahora"), which sought to give a sign of national reconciliation.
Also in 2003, stressed the frictions and conflicts between RN and UDI, mainly due to a dispute between the parties for the leadership within the Alliance for Chile, as well as personal disagreements between the presidents of both parties, Pablo Longueira and Sebastián Piñera
Sebastián Piñera
Miguel Juan Sebastián Piñera Echenique is a Chilean businessman and politician. He was elected President of Chile in January 2010, taking office in March 2010.- Education :...
. That is Joaquin Lavin, who was then leader of the Alliance for Chile and only presidential candidate, had suddenly and publicly call on both the resignation from their posts.
In 2005, UDI selected Joaquín Lavín for presidential elections again, but National Renewal launched its own candidate, the millionaire businessman and former senator Sebastián Piñera
Sebastián Piñera
Miguel Juan Sebastián Piñera Echenique is a Chilean businessman and politician. He was elected President of Chile in January 2010, taking office in March 2010.- Education :...
. Attempts to choose a single candidate for the right-wing failed. Piñera got second in the election, and there was a runoff between him and the Concertación candidate, Michelle Bachelet
Michelle Bachelet
Verónica Michelle Bachelet Jeria is a Social Democrat politician who was President of Chile from 11 March 2006 to 11 March 2010. She was the first woman president of her country...
. Lavín urged his supporters to vote for Piñera, whom he endorsed wholeheartedly. However, in the 2006 runoff, Piñera was defeated by Bachelet. In the 2005 parliamentary elections
Chilean parliamentary election, 2005
The 2005 Chilean parliamentary election took place on December 11, 2005, in conjunction with the presidential election. All of the 120 seats in the Chamber of Deputies were contested, while 20 out of 38 seats in the Senate were up for election . Deputies serve for a period of four years, while...
, UDI maintained its status as largest party in Congress, taking 33 out of 120 deputies.
During the government of Michelle Bachelet (2006-2010), UDI was the majority party in both houses of Congress and successfully fought the municipal election of 2008. At the internal level, in July 2008 was first presented two lists to lead the party: one headed by Juan Antonio Coloma and Victor Perez Varela (who had the backing of the historical leaders of the party) and one by Jose Antonio Kast and Rodrigo Alvarez (supported mainly by the younger members). Coloma got 63% of member votes.
Coloma's board immediately got down to the details of the upcoming Chilean municipal election, 2008
Chilean municipal election, 2008
A municipal election took place in Chile on October 26, 2008. The newly elected mayors and councilmen began their term on December 6, 2008.-Mayoral election:Official and final results.-Councilmen election:Official and final results....
, and just finished it, the preparations for next year's parliamentary and presidential election. In December 2008, the highest party leaders decided to forgo the option to offer the country a UDI presidential candidate and provided support for Piñera's candidacy in order to avoid a fifth consecutive Concertacion government. This decision was ratified later, unanimously by party members, August 22, 2009.
2010s
Sebastián PiñeraSebastián Piñera
Miguel Juan Sebastián Piñera Echenique is a Chilean businessman and politician. He was elected President of Chile in January 2010, taking office in March 2010.- Education :...
, the candidate of the Coalition for Change
Coalition for Change
The Coalition for Change is a presidential and parliamentary electoral coalition that groups the supporters of President Sebastián Piñera for the 2009-2010 Chilean election...
, was elected President of the Republic of Chile
President of Chile
The President of the Republic of Chile is both the head of state and the head of government of the Republic of Chile. The President is responsible of the government and state administration...
on January 17, 2010, in runoff against Senator Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle
Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle
Eduardo Alfredo Juan Bernardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle is a Chilean politician and civil engineer who was President of Chile from 1994 to 2000. He is currently Senator for Los Ríos and was President of the Senate from 2006 to 2008. He attempted a comeback as the candidate of the ruling Concertación...
. UDI and its territorial deployment was key to the Piñera's success. Meanwhile, in Chilean parliamentary elections, 2009, UDI managed to remain the largest party in the country and elected 40 deputies out of 120, representing the largest bank obtained by a single political party in Chile since 1990.
In August 2010 they met for the second time the lists of Juan Antonio Coloma and Jose Antonio Kast to lead the party, again with a triumph for Coloma with more than 67% of the votes.
Many members of UDI are part of Piñera's administration.